Snow petrel

Oil on board, 30 x 40 inches

At 4.30 in the morning at the Antarctic peninsula, the sun breaks through below a layer of heavy cloud that cloaks the mountains just north of Port Lockroy.

Snow is never white as it reflects and absorbs the light and colours of the landscape around it.

The snow-covered surface of this glacier took on yellow, blue and purple hues from the sun and the cloud above it, while the fractured face of the ice showed hints of green where the yellow rays of the sun mixed with the blue of compacted ice.

A lone snow petrel floated angelically through the scene.